


I want to get to know you

by static_abyss



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-28
Updated: 2012-06-28
Packaged: 2017-11-08 18:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/446167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/static_abyss/pseuds/static_abyss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel and Dean's relationship is going nowhere and they seek relationship counseling. Except, the advisor happens to be Crowley.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I want to get to know you

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I wrote for a past kink meme.

"This is stupid," Dean says. "Completely stupid. I hope you know that."

Castiel sighs in that long suffering way of his as if Dean is really the one who has the problem. Dean shoulders on his leather jacket and makes a show of opening the door to their apartment for Castiel. He gets a silent, but pointed stalk by and Dean can't resist the urge to roll his eyes. 

It was Castiel's idea that they go to relationship counseling, as if some guy who'd probably never been in a relationship his whole life could possibly tell them how to have a fruitful relationship. But Castiel had insisted after someone from work had told him all about how great the relationship counselor was and how much their relationship had improved. As far as Dean is concerned, whoever this friend from work is, they aren't allowed in his home ever again.

"Are you going to drive?"

"Yeah," Dean says following Castiel out the door.

They have two cars, his old Impala and Castiel's Prius. Dean tries not to pay too much attention to where most of the money for the apartment comes from. It's the one thing he can't seem to get over. The one thing he pushes away because it's not worth the trouble thinking it over. He didn't go to school. Cas did. It's as simple as that.

"Bring your keys then," Castiel tells him when Dean makes for the Prius.

"What?"

"Keys," Cas repeats.

Dean thinks that he should have known things were serious then.

-

The shrink is a very small, balding man who's wearing a black suit and a red pinstriped tie. Dean almost walks out as soon as he sees him. The old man in a suit thing doesn’t really work for him. He's turning, can feel his defense mechanism kicking in for him, but Castiel is there and Dean isn't stupid enough to walk away.

"Good morning," Castiel says and Dean stands there, half hiding behind him.

He's not afraid, just nervous as fuck. Castiel hadn't complained once about the music selection or the way the Impala had coughed as though on her deathbed when Dean had started the car. They'd driven in silence and Dean had spent the entire ride trying to come up with the best way to ask his questions. He couldn’t see the problem.

"I'm Crowley, just Crowley. I don't like the whole doctor bit. And let me guess," Crowley says looking them up and down before fixing his eyes on Dean. "You must be the insufferable prick."

"You told him about me?" Dean accuses, stops. "Wait, what?"

"Nobody introduced you, mate. I can tell," Crowley says grinning like he's having the time of his life.

Dean waits for the punch line, but when Castiel takes his seat in front of Crowley's desk, he knows it's not coming. Crowley looks at him and Dean can feel the embarrassed heat on the back of his neck. He makes a show of taking off his jacket before he throws it over his chair and sits.

"So, you don't like to be shown up, do you?"

Dean's head snaps up to look at Crowley. The smile on Castiel's face isn't helping things and for a wild second Dean thinks that this is all some sort of sick joke Castiel is playing on him. He looks around for the camera, doesn’t know what he expects, maybe one of his friends hiding behind a plant. He gets nothing, just a good look at the ten foot by ten foot office with the wide window behind Crowley's desk. The bookshelves to the right of Dean's chair scream stereotypical shrink and he's not at all surprised to see the picture of the wife and kids, the open folder with the white pages where Crowley is going to write all sorts of nonsense. There's even a row of books that have titles like _Are you ready to take control of your life?_ and _Depression: Don't let it rule your love life._

"Would you like to borrow a book?" 

Dean shakes his head and leans back into his chair. He decides that he's better off saying as little as possible. He'll let Castiel bitch until he's done and then they'll go home, silently agree that they're never going to do this again and—

"Rather loud thinking there," Crowley smiles, touching the tips of his fingers together as he looks them over. "Right then. We'll start with names. As I already said, I'm Crowley. I was too good for Britain, ended up here, much more work to do here. And you two are?"

"I'm Castiel," Cas says and he's smiling like he's already enchanted with Crowley.

"Dean."

Crowley's smirk scratches at the wall of patience Dean has built. He takes a deep breath and when Castiel turns to look at him he's managed to school his face into a mask of polite disinterest. It seems to work because Castiel turns away, shaking his head the same way he does when Dean comes home and tells him about how all the people at work are a bunch of dicks and how he wouldn't go back if the pay wasn't as good at it was. It's the same look Castiel has been giving him whenever Dean suggests they go to a bar and drink, maybe try out the lock in the bathroom stalls. 

"Want to tell me what the problem is, Dean?"

"We have no problem."

"How about you love," Crowley asks turning to Castiel.

Dean narrows his eyes. He thinks there must be something about shrinks showing favoritism in relationship counseling. The way Crowley leans over his desk, the way his mouth practically hangs open as he looks at Castiel, as though Cas is everything in his world. Dean coughs, loud and pointed, but they ignore him. 

"We're stuck—"

"We're not stuck," Dean interrupts.

Crowley raises an eyebrow and Dean rolls his eyes at him. He turns to Castiel expecting the look of understanding and getting a sad kind of fed up one instead. It takes Dean a moment to realize that he's seen that look before, that it's been a while since he's seen the other one—the one that used to make him stop in his tracks when Castiel directed it at him. He notices for the first time how much Castiel has been trying to fix something that Dean wasn't even aware was broken. 

"So," Crowley says, drawing out the word. "May he go on?"

"Cas," Dean says and he doesn't know how he's supposed to explain it, how stupid he's been. He doesn't know how to fix it, doesn’t know if Castiel is angry about what Dean thinks he's angry about. He's grasping at straws because he's not good at this. He doesn’t know where or how exactly they're stuck.

"We're stuck," Castiel goes on speaking to Crowley. "There's nowhere to go from here. We've been together for three years now. We live together. We work. We come home. We fuck. We wake up. We do it again."

Dean cringes, "I wouldn’t put it that way."

"Oh?" and Dean can hear the eyebrow raise in the way Crowley says it. 

Dean turns to Castiel, their eyes meet for a second and, of course, Dean knows what he's thinking. He always knows what Castiel is thinking and if has stopped paying attention it’s only because he thought they were at the point where they could. Three years meant something to him, a lot more than he was willing to admit. Castiel had to know. He knew about the string of men and women Dean had gone through before meeting him, Dean's flings that lasted maybe a week at most before he moved on to the next one. He'd been a mess, lost in his own world of _I don't give a fuck_ until Castiel had asked if he could buy him a drink. Dean had yes and it was meant to be a one-time fuck, but then Dean had noticed Castiel's blue eyes and the way he managed to look powerful and disarmingly adorable at the same time. It had driven Dean insane, pushed him to bars and more men and women, fucking anyone who would let him until he had given in and seen Castiel again. He'd been terrified the first month, gone almost insane the second until they'd made it to the third and Dean had realized it wasn't bad, that he liked waking up to Castiel's sleep mused hair, liked feeling another body next to him. 

"Cas," Dean says and he's not even really sure what he wants to say. 

"How many long term relationships have you been in?"

Castiel gives Dean a pained look. Dean feels this sudden urge to grab Castiel by the shoulders, to shake him, to ask him if he really is that stupid. Three years, Dean wants to tell him. That has to mean something to him.

"None," Dean answers and he's not going to look away from Castiel because maybe he can get him to understand that way. This is stupid, a waste of their time. Dean is not going anywhere, doesn’t want Castiel to go anywhere either. 

He stops at that thought because he wasn’t the one who brought them here. It was Castiel. It's Castiel who thinks they're stuck. Castiel's the one who's bored, who is thinking of leaving. Dean takes a deep shuddering breath and turns away. He focuses on the fact that they're here which means Castiel wants to fix whatever he thinks is wrong with them.

"Bollocks. Well, there goes that theory out the window," Crowley sighs. "So it's not that you're ready to move on, it's that you're balls at the whole relationship thing."

Dean looks up at Crowley then and yeah, sure, he'll admit that. "I suck, yeah."

"But, he's not the only one in the relationship," Castiel interrupts and Dean tries not to look too hopeful at that.

"He isn't," Crowley asks and when Dean looks at Crowley, he swears he gets a wink.

"No," Castiel says. "I'm part of it too."

"You're too good for him love," Crowley says turning away from Dean, doing that thing where he focuses on Castiel's face as though it's everything he's ever wanted to see. Dean wants to say something, but then he realizes what's going on and leans back in his chair. He can feel the heat in his face again and he doesn't look up because he knows Crowley is looking at him, probably laughing at him too.

"Dean knows it too, don't you, Dean?" And Dean swears that if he ever gets a hold of Castiel's friend he'd going to beat the smartass out of him. Or her. 

"I don't look at him like that," Dean says and he refuses to play this game.

"But you know that Castiel is too good for you. I mean, he's wearing the suit mate. You brought your leather jacket."

"I'm not," Castiel snaps. "Money has nothing to do with this."

"I just fail to understand why you'd stay with him, is all," Crowley shrugs, a small sympathetic smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "If I were you I'd pack his bags and kick him out of the flat that you're probably paying for. It would save you the money you're spending on this session."

"I'm not doing that."

"So what are you saying then? That you'd rather stay with emotionally stunted here and try to work things out? Why?"

"Because," Castiel says, stops and just stares.

Dean can feel panic settling in the bottom of his stomach the longer Castiel stares. "Cas," he says when Dean thinks Castiel's been still for too long. "Cas, you're scaring me."

Castiel stands up. "We have to go," he says pulling on Dean's hand. 

Dean snatches his jacket off the chair and looks at Crowley. The man is leaning back in his chair, smirk plain on his face as he looks at Castiel. "You can drop off my check at the front desk and do come back. I absolutely loved having you both here."

Cas doesn't say much as he signs the check and drops it off with the girl at the front desk. She takes it, smiles more than a little knowing at Dean. Her eyes flit to Castiel and Dean swears she mouth _good job_. Dean smiles at her on their way out, watching Castiel from the corner of his eye all the way to the car. He's not sure if Crowley's mind fuck worked or if Cas is really considering dumping him out in the street.

"So," Dean says when they're in the car. "Want to tell me what that was about?"

"Pull over."

Dean doesn't even think about. He pulls the car to a stop on the side of the road and Castiel is on him so fast he barely manages to cut the engine. Lips, teeth and Dean can feel Castiel's fingers in his hair, tugging him closer. He can feel Castiel's tongue tracing his jaw, the soft sounds from Castiel when Dean's hands dip under his shirt. And Dean isn't complaining, but he wants to make sure Castiel got it and that they never have to go back and see Crowley again.

"Wait," he manages to get out in between kisses. "First off, we're in the middle of a road. Second, what the fuck Cas? You took me to see a shrink and then you complained about how we're going nowhere and now you want to fuck in the middle of the road?"

"Crowley is a bastard," Castiel growls.

"Yeah?"

Castiel sighs, but stops trying to climb on Dean's lap. The hand in Dean's hair is still there and he lets Castiel bring him in closer until their foreheads are touching. Dean's hand goes to Castiel's hip, fitting as it always has under his hand. The kiss Castiel gives him is softer this time, slower as if he's trying to get Dean to understand things that they’ve never been able to say out loud. Dean doesn't try to hide the full body shudder that has him leaning forward, trying to close the space between them. The kiss isn't new on his part because he's known this for years, knows what Castiel is going to tell him even before he pulls away.

"You don’t have to say it," he says.

"Say what?" Cas asks, but he's looking at Dean with so much adoration that Dean has to look away.

"I missed that," he admits and then has to pull away because it's more intimate than he is used to.

"That's really hard for you isn't it?"

"Can we go home now?"

Dean didn’t know how much he missed Castiel's laugh until it fills up the empty space in the car. There's a tightening in his chest that he'll never admit to and things he wants to say that he's not going to, not yet. He can feel Castiel's hand on his thigh, fingers rubbing soothing circles and when he turns he knows Castiel gets it.

"Yeah," Cas says. "Let's go home."

"Are we going to see Crowley again?"

"Fuck no."


End file.
